It’s safe to say that Tom Holland’s Lip Sync Battle performance is one of the greatest videos of all time.
As I’m sure you know, Tom channeled Rihanna in a short black wig and fishnet stockings as he put on an incredible performance of her hit song “Umbrella.”
Tom was competing against his now-fiancée, Zendaya, whose performance of Bruno Mars’s “24K Magic” was super tame* in comparison to his “Singin’ in the Rain” X “Umbrella” mashup.
*Tame in comparison, but still incredible.
In fact, when Tom underwent a quick outfit change as the song “Umbrella” began playing, Zendaya was filmed looking super shocked with her hands covering her mouth as she watched her Spider-Man costar strut his stuff.
Now reflecting on the iconic performance, Tom has revealed that he and Zendaya actually agreed beforehand that they would keep their performances super chilled — which would perhaps explain her memorable reaction.
“Zendaya and I, we were chatting at the time about what we were gonna do. And we had agreed that we would take it easy,” Tom told chef Gordon Ramsay in a recent YouTube video.
Naturally, Gordon was super shocked by Tom’s admission. “What?!” he said, prompting Tom to continue, “That was the agreement. Like, ‘I’m not gonna do anything crazy, you’re not gonna do anything crazy, we’re just gonna keep it nice and easy breezy.'”
“And then when I was working with the creative team, coming up with the ideas, they kind of pitched this ‘Umbrella’ thing. And as we were rehearsing, it got crazier and crazier. And then the rain machine came in, and then I was like, ‘Fuck it, I wanna wear fishnets and do this. And I want a wig, and a quick change and stuff,’” Tom recalled.
When Gordon asked what Tom’s family said about the performance, the Spider-Man actor admitted that his dad wasn’t quite on board.
“When I told my dad, he was like, ‘Son, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think you should do that,’” Tom shared. “I was like, ‘No, Dad, it’ll be really fun, like I’m gonna have a good time.’”
Tom then explained, “I think he was just… At that time in my career, he was very worried about me becoming too famous too quickly. So he was really keen for me to not do extra TV shows that I didn’t have to do, to try and maintain that part of my childhood.”
